How’s it going on guys! Welcome back to the ABTFM Player Analysis. Today, we are going to look at the French midfielder – Maxence Caqueret. He is playing for Olympique Lyonnais 2 (Lyon U21) at the start of the game, and I promoted him into the first team at the second season. He started most of the matches in 2nd season and became my first-choice midfielder at the half season. His performance was amazing, and I would definitely recommend him to every single FM gamer. Without further ado, let’s see how good a player he is.
Player Info
- Name: Maxence Caqueret
- Position: DM, M/AM(C)
- Date of Birth: 15/02/2000
- Value: £1.3M
- Wages: £5.5K p/w
- Height: 174cm
- Weight: 63kg
- Preferred Foot: Right
Spotting the kid
I am the type of manager who likes to develop young players from the youth academy. One of the major things that I will do when I arrive at a club, is to have a look at the development centre, looking through the players attributes, and create notes on the young prospects that I love. In Lyon, a couple of young players caught my attention. However, the one and only player that exceed the expectation – Maxence Caqueret.
In my first season with Lyon, I promoted Caqueret to the first team squad. The main reason is that I want to develop the player myself. Although I made him available for OL2 squad, which means he will be playing most of the games for OL2, I took over his individual training. I can decide what attributes and traits that I want him to have by assigning different focus training. I also gave him some game time as a substitution in the league, as well as starting in some cup matches. His performance was okay in the first season compared to some of the youth players like Tituan Thomas and Melvin Bard.
Yet, he came stronger than ever in the summer of 2020.
Summer 2020
Summer 2020, pre-season, 4 friendlies – Zenit, New York Red Bull, Columbus Crew SC, and Standard de Liege. Caqueret started against Zenit and New York Red Bull. His performance was decent as a Box to Box Midfielder. No major spotlight on him in those two games. Against Columbus, he was on the bench. We were losing 1-0 at the 70th minute and Jean Lucas wasn’t having a good time on the pitch. I decided to sub Caqueret on for our first choice Deep Lying Playmaker. The French kid stood up, put on his jersey, and waiting at the sideline. I approached him and assertively told him –
“Show me why you deserve to be in the team!”
There was no smile on his face. He nodded without looking at me. I saw fire in his eyes. The game finished at 1-1. He was neither the scorer nor making the assist, however, in 20 minutes time he sent out 3 key passes as a Deep Lying Playmaker. I decided to give him another chance next game and play him as the DLP.
Well, no surprise. He scored the opener at the 40th minute, provided 1 assist, made 4 key passes, picked up the Man of the Match award after beating the Belgium team 3-0. I knew he is the young prospect I was looking for.
In fact, he is the Young Player of the Season in Season 2020/21, and the second runner-up of Fans’ Player of the Season.
Player Development
In terms of his attributes’ growth in 2 seasons, it is absolutely amazing. In summary, his Technical ability, Mental ability and Physical ability have major improvement. As a midfielder, you love to see these attributes has improved, such as dribbling (+1), long shots (+2), marking (+1), passing (+1), anticipation (+1), concentration (+1), decisions (+1), positioning (+1), vision (+1), acceleration (+1), balance (+2), stamina (+1), strength (+3). The individual focus that I have assigned to him is Strength as his technical and mental are already decent at the beginning. I am so delighted to see his strength and balance improve so much.
Performance
Let’s have a look at his performance throughout the season. Caqueret played 37 games under my management, starting 33 games. He scored 4 goals and made 7 assists in all competitions. His average rating is 7.46, which is the 3rd highest in the team, only Houssem Aouar and Memphis Depay, our two key players are higher than him. He made 45 dribbles in 37 games, which is great. However, looking at the downside, he made 37 mistakes in overall, which means in average he will make one mistake in every game.
Moving on, let us compare his passing stats with the other Lyon players. He made a total 98 key passes in this season, which is the highest in the team, more than Houssem Aouar and Memphis Depay. In terms of chances created, he is behind Aouar and Memphis with 14 chances created.
Coach Report
Caqueret’s coach report looks great. He is currently an important player in the team, but he could still improve in the future according the coach. He is a fairly consistent performer which is one of the very important pros in FM20. The pros that I love the most are smart player and good off the ball movement and decisions making. These pros are very crucial for a midfielder in my opinion.
The coach suggests that he has to improve his crossing ability, but I personally think crossing is not a very important attribute for him. Another con of him is very one-footed. It could be a slightly concern because obviously midfielder should be comfortable in using their weak foot. I would suggest giving him additional focus like avoid using weaker foot or improve his weak foot.
Injury History
This absolutely shocked me. Football Manager is known for injuries. However, Maxence Caqueret is so strong that he doesn’t even get a single injury throughout the season! The screenshot is taken at the end of the season, so the match load and training load are light. Look at the injury history, NONE! Caqueret is not an injury prone and he is going to be a real asset in your team.
Role suggestion
Caqueret is natural at both defensive midfielder and centre midfielder. If needed, you can play him as an attacking midfielder as well. For me, I think centre midfielder is his best position because he has good positioning as well as off the ball. Most of the time in Lyon, I play him as a Deep Lying Playmaker. However, looking at his attributes, he could be a good Mezzala as well.
Deep Lying Playmaker on Support – The Deep Lying Playmaker operates in the space between the defence and the midfielder and aims to initiate attacking moves via pinpoint passes to players positioned higher up the pitch. Although primarily a creative player, he also has to be competent in the art of defence. In a Support Duty, the Deep Lying Playmaker will bring the ball out of defence and operate with a more expansive passing range.
Football Manager 2020
Maxence Caqueret mostly plays as the DLP on Support for me. Since DLP is a playmaking role, we are going to look at the player’s passing, vision, technique and decisions. Caqueret has great passing(15), vision(15) and technique(15) since the start of the game. However, you will have to develop his decisions in the training. Off the ball, positioning, work rate and anticipation are also very important for this role. Caqueret’s has all the mental ability mentioned above so you don’t have to worry too much. In my opinion, strength and balance are also important for DLP. Although this is a playmaking role, a DLP will be sitting quite deep at the midfield. Strength, balance, composure and technique are the important attributes to define whether or not a player can hold the ball well. Obviously, it would be extremely dangerous if you lose the ball at the deep midfield position. So, do some training on Caqueret’s strength and balance, and you are good to go. I definitely recommend him as a DLP on Support.
Mezzala on Support – Mezzala is a central player that likes to drift wide and operate in the half-spaces. The Mezzala is essentially a central/half winger, who likes to do his defending slightly, further up the field, although he does generally have less defensive responsibility. With a Support duty, the Mezzala will seek to balance his responsibilities between more traditional midfield work and the inclination to contribute the attacking third.
Football Manager 2020
It would be pretty interesting to play Caqueret as a Mezzala. Mezzala is an attacking and creative role and it is definitely one of the overpower roles in FM20. Caqueret has good first touch(15), passing(15), technique(15), vision(14) which are suitable for this role. However, some of the attributes need to be improved, such as dribbling(12), composure(12), decisions(12), and balance(10). However, as you can see in my save, Caqueret has developed so much and his attributes in the 2nd season are great for a Mezzala. According to the coach report, his off the ball and decisions are his strength. Those pros are definitely a plus for Mezzala. I would keep Caqueret in the Support duty rather than the Attack duty because finishing and crossing are not his best attributes. He could be the supporter in the final third, but not the finisher.
Other than Deep Lying Playmaker and Mezzala, you could also try using him as a Box to Box Midfielder. His mental ability and physical ability are so good for a BBM (especially both his off the ball and positioning are great), however, you will be wasting his technical ability for a little bit.
Conclusion
Overall, Maxence Caqueret is a young a talented midfielder who you would definitely like to have in your team. I personally think I praise Caqueret a lot in my Lyon Journey, because this is how good he is. I love him so much and he is probably the best centre midfielder I had in this game. He has the potential and I believe he is quite cheap at the start of the game. So, sign him when you have the chance and develop him into a world-class midfielder. Anyways, that’s all for today and I hope you enjoyed the analysis of Maxence Caqueret. Take care and I will see you next time!
ABT Football Manager 